One concern about this approach is that I think it can seem obviously “low leverage” to the types of people focused on entrepreneurship, policy change and research (some of the people we most want to appeal to), and can give them the impression that EA is mainly about ‘high confidence’ giving rather than ‘high expected value’ giving, which is already a one of the most common misconceptions out there.
I totally forgot about that article, thank you for pointing it out! That is an excellent resource.
Your concern totally makes sense. Something I’ve been thinking about lately is whether EA should make a more concerted effort to promote ‘streams’ of varying fidelity intended for audiences which are coming from very different places.
Put another way: say I have a co-worker who every year gives to traditional, community-based charitable orgs, and has never considered giving that money elsewhere. Is this person more likely to spend the time on excellent and in-depth philosophical articles + podcasts I push on them, or engage with a more direct and irrefutable appeal to logic? I tend to think that the latter can serve as a gateway to the former.
Hi there, I agree it’s an interesting opening argument. I was wondering if you had seen this article before, which takes a similar approach: https://80000hours.org/career-guide/making-a-difference/
One concern about this approach is that I think it can seem obviously “low leverage” to the types of people focused on entrepreneurship, policy change and research (some of the people we most want to appeal to), and can give them the impression that EA is mainly about ‘high confidence’ giving rather than ‘high expected value’ giving, which is already a one of the most common misconceptions out there.
Hi Benjamin,
I totally forgot about that article, thank you for pointing it out! That is an excellent resource.
Your concern totally makes sense. Something I’ve been thinking about lately is whether EA should make a more concerted effort to promote ‘streams’ of varying fidelity intended for audiences which are coming from very different places.
Put another way: say I have a co-worker who every year gives to traditional, community-based charitable orgs, and has never considered giving that money elsewhere. Is this person more likely to spend the time on excellent and in-depth philosophical articles + podcasts I push on them, or engage with a more direct and irrefutable appeal to logic? I tend to think that the latter can serve as a gateway to the former.